Manga / FAKE

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FAKE is a pair of manga and a one-shot anime by Sanami Matoh that take the Ho Yay inherent in many buddy cop films and follow it to its natural conclusion.

When Randy McLean joins the NYPD'S 27th Precinct, he is paired up with the department troublemaker, Dee Laytner. On learning that Randy is half-Japanese, Dee decides that Randy should be called by his Japanese moniker, Ryo, and that is how the character is referred to for the rest of the series.

Almost immediately, Dee expresses an attraction to Ryo, which Ryo isn't sure how to respond to. After their first case, Dee steals a kiss from his surprised partner - and for the rest of the series, spends most of his time in romantic pursuit of his not-always-reluctant target. Ryo's adopted son, the delinquent Bikky, and Bikky's (girl)friend Carol alternately help and hinder their relationship, while other members of the cast, including J.J. Adams, a marksman with a crush on Dee since their Police Academy days, and Berkeley Rose, an inspector with his eye on Ryo, try to keep them apart.

Dee and Ryo initially form the typical chalk-and-cheese-double act, with the usually steady and sensible Ryo trying to keep the more impulsive and careless Dee under control (and handling the paperwork resulting from those cases where he doesn't quite manage to do so). However, as the series continues, it becomes clear that things aren't quite as clear cut as they seem; Ryo has some issues that can trigger a surprisingly violent and irrational temper, while Dee looks out for the kids at the local orphanage. Both have pasts that mysteriously tie in with the city's extremely active, but equally elusive, Mafia family.

Notable as a yaoi/shounen-ai series where there is more than romance in the plotline: Dee and Ryo's role as cops is as crucial to the plot as their relationship is.

FAKE II: The Second Season

Takes place a about a year after the events of FAKE. Things have changed for the guys. Ryo and Dee are now a steady couple and Ryo has officially adopted Bikky. Soon things change even more as Dee and Ryo along with (Formerly Those Two Guys) Drake and Ted are offered a chance to join a new task force in conjunction with the FBI. They accept and soon form a Five-Man Band, when JJ requests to join.

The series was adapted into a one episode OVA anime.

This series provides examples of:

Above the Influence: Dee makes it very clear that he'd love to have his way with Ryo, almost to the point of Black Comedy Rape, but the one time that Ryo offers himself up in a moment of emotional weakness, Dee hits him and tells him that only the worst kind of dickhead would take advantage of him under those circumstances.

Art Evolution: The art style and facial features of many characters changed a good deal from FAKE to FAKE Second Season as Matoh made people's faces more distinctive from one another. Ryo in particular is a prime example looking far more boyish than he previously did.

Bears are Bad News: A teacher in a bear costume menaces Carol at a school camp as part of an intended fireside prank until Bikky intervenes with a stun gun. Somewhat unsurprisingly, it turns out to be a real bear after all. Bikky rather prudently decides to grab Carol and run for it once he figures it out, and becomes a hero to his fellow students for living to tell about it.

The Big Rotten Apple: The 27th Precinct is set in the projects and so we the darker, more violent side of NYC

Bi the Way: Dee, Ryo, Berkeley, and Drake all demonstrate the capacity for attraction to both men and women on some level. Dee openly identifies himself as bisexual and has no problem flirting with Diana; Ryo refers to himself as a gay man in volume 7, but a side story shows him having a brief, budding romance with a girl when he was a teenager.

Black Comedy Rape: During the trip to England, Dee drunkenly tries to force himself on Ryo, pulling his shirt off and pinning him to the bed while Ryo struggles to escape. This is all played for laughs, and Bikky and Carol are watching from the other room placing bets on whether or not Ryo will actually get laid.

Dynamic Entry: Dee gets some good ones, such as when Ryo is in danger in Act 5. In the manga he arrives on the scene fist-first, punching Leonard right in the face; the anime adaptation takes it even further by having him crash through a window on a motorcycle.

Everyone Is Bi: Or at least everyone who is male and a law enforcement officer.

Fair Cop: Most of the on-panel members of the 27th Precinct, starting with Dee and Ryo and excepting only Chief Smith.

Friend to All Children: Both Ryo and Dee. Ryo is the more obvious case; Dee claims to hate kids but donates most of his money to orphans and is always there when Bikky and/or Carol needs him.

Gayngst: Ryo struggles to deny the fact that he's in love with Dee for six freaking volumes! It makes things even more frustrating because everyone including the entire Fourth WallCan See It. The fact that Dee patiently waits for him to sort things out for two years even surprises Ryo.

In FAKE II, even after he starts dating Dee, he still worries what people like Bikky will think.

Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: When Ryo offers to have sex with Dee after his traumatic encounter with his parents' murderer, Dee punches him.

Gratuitous English: All over the comic, especially "Go Go Bikky!" Yonkoma. Of particular note would be Carol turning down a guy with "fuck you, motherfucker!"

Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: Ryo initially tried fending Dee off by protesting that he's straight, although privately he thinks that he may have to start admitting some things about himself. He drops the tactic pretty quickly, though it takes him six volumes to actually get around to identifying himself as gay.

Hero Stole My Bike: Dee steals a motorcycle to race back to the English hotel when he realizes Ryo is in danger.

Implausible Deniability: Ryo has a tendency to get extremely jealous whenever someone puts the moves on Dee. Even when it's JJ. He then proceeds to deny it vehemently.

Also, Lai and Lass maintain that they have absolutely no supernatural abilities of any sort... even after flying in front of numerous witnesses. On multiple occasions.

I Need to Go Iron My Dog: One kid tells Bikky "I gotta go home and feed my mongoose." Another says he has to help his sister with her homework. Given the kid's intelligence, Bikky finds the two equally implausible.

The Jail Bait Wait: Jokingly invoked by Dee and Carol when Carol promises Dee a date in ten years.

Karma Houdini: Zigzags. Leo was this for most of the series as he was responsible for multiple murders across different story arcs, including Ryo's parents, and got away with every one until Alicia kills him. And Alicia for her part murdered multiple gangsters and single-handedly took down two gangs, while framing her husband for it. She even kills her husband in full-view of a police officer and gets away with it because Leo begs Ryo not to tell on her. But she ends up all alone because her husband is dead and her father is about to die—and she is utterly miserable.

Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The manga occasionally delves into this. When Ryo won a real-life poll, the characters commented on it in the fourth volume. Another time, Dee comments, "We're gonna bang a nice little M rating into this sorry excuse for a manga yet."

Moment Killer: It's a rare intimate moment between Dee and Ryo that isn't interupted just as progress appears to be going on. Bikky and JJ do it on purpose, but they're far from the only offenders. Special mention goes to the scene in Act 17 in which they are moments from a Relationship Upgrade when the phone rings - and then JJ bursts in - and then Bikky bursts in, all within less than a minute of one another.

Mukokuseki: People seem to instantly recognize Ryo is part Japanese by his eyes. His eyes don't look any different from the other characters; in fact, he looks more Caucasian than some of the other characters thanks to his lighter hair.

Murder by Mistake: What happened to Ryo's parents at the hands of Leo Grant and his cohorts.

My Greatest Failure: Smith shot and killed a suspect in front of the latter's wife and son. He was defending the kid, but still regrets having needed to do it.

Big Bad Leo has this too after he's fatally wounded by Alicia, Leo confesses to Ryo that he has two regrets. The first was that he murdered Ryo's parents, and seeing a teenaged Ryo emotionally destroyed at the hospital drove the point home to Leo that he was a monster. His second regret was not getting out of the business and making Alicia happy.

Post-Kiss Catatonia: Drake in the epilogue after JJ plants one on him. Prior to that, in an example that's not played for comedy, Ryo's left sitting on the floor in shock after the second time Dee kisses him, until an emergency snaps him out of it.

Spell My Name with an "S": The official English subs of the anime romanize Carol's name as "Cal," and the owner of the hotel in the English vacation story is "Renard" in the manga but "Leonard" in the anime.

Very Special Episode: At one point the father of a (black) serial killing victim accuses the police of racism, prompting a subplot about prejudice.

Dee's backstory also goes into drugs and prostitution, with a young friend of his being hooked deliberately onto a drug so that the dealers could use him to run errands and to supply them with sexual favours.

Vitriolic Best Buds: Dee and Bikky are Type 2. Although they're usually at each other's throat, when the chips are down it's clear how much they care for each other.

Bikky and Lai count as well.

Well-Intentioned Replacement: Bikky saved up money to buy some expensive jewelery for Carol and even bought it, but on the way out met a kid crying because he'd just been mugged and couldn't buy something for his mother. So of course Bikky goes back into the shop, returns the gift, and gives the kid the money. Carol winds up with sunflowers Bikky cut from his foster dad's window sill (and since she was following Bikky and saw the whole thing, she's just as happy with that).

Where's the Kaboom?: Played with during a hostage crisis, Dee bluffs the bad guys by telling them a retractable ballpoint pen is the detonator for a bomb hidden in the character's base. When he clicks the pen, his bluff seems to have been called - but then the bomb, which Ryo had previously set for 10 pm, goes off as scheduled.

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